Councillor Adrian Jones introduced a report by the Head of Universal and Infrastructure Services that sought authority to dispose of Alexander Hall, Rocky Lane, Heswall.

The Cabinet, at its meeting on 15 January 2009 had identified a number of facilities, including Alexander Hall, which should be transferred to community management, where the community expressed an interest. 

Alexander Hall was a timber, pre-fabricated building, which had been constructed in the 1960s and had been used as a community hall until recently.  The type of construction meant it had a limited life and this had been endorsed by an independent survey. 

The Cabinet noted that Alexander Hall, along with the nearby Heswall Hall, had been advertised as available for community management in accordance with the Council’s Community Asset Transfer policy.  A selection process had identified a group representing the existing users of the Halls, who organised themselves to form the Heswall Halls Steering Group, who developed a proposal involving both halls, which was approved by the Cabinet on 14 October 2010.  The steering group then became the Heswall Hall Community Trust (HHCT).  Its proposal aimed to take over facilities which, at that time, generated significant losses and to operate them in such a way as to generate a profit.  On this basis, the group’s proposal revolved around developing Heswall Hall as the main focus of community activities and to gradually relocate users of Alexander Hall to Heswall Hall.  This proposal only required the group’s use of Alexander Hall for a short time and was transferred to them on a three year lease, which could be terminated by the group as and when the facility was no longer required.  The group successfully relocated activities to Heswall Hall in a much shorter time and handed Alexander Hall back to the Council in December 2011. 

As part of the process of transferring Heswall and Alexander Halls, the Heswall Hall Community Trust made it clear that it viewed Alexander Hall as an important community facility and that any receipt for a future sale should, in some way, be made available to fund community facilities in the locality.  Members therefore had agreed that the transfer of Heswall Hall should include provision for the Trust to be able to apply for a portion of a receipt generated by the future sale of Alexander Hall, to fund future community based projects at Heswall Hall.  A legal agreement set out the basis of determining the money available to the Trust, which in essence reflected a share of the proceeds of sale, less monies spent by the Council from its repair and maintenance budget on the refurbishment of Heswall Hall.  The amount available to the Trust was capped and the maximum figure which it could apply for was in the region of £25,100.

Alexander Hall was now vacant and unused and, due to its construction and condition was deemed unsuitable for any long-term uses.  This background has been previously reported to the Portfolio Holder for Central and Support Services and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14